Video description: a factory-style robot arm has been fitted with a padded seat with harness on the end of of its arm – a man is strapped into this and then the robot rotates back and forth while the arm twists and gyrates in complicated loops. At times the man is swooshing along while upside down with his head very close to the ground.

Best comment on the youtube page?

Stay away from that thing when skynet takes over.

Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.

NB: the weekly whimsy thread is a stoush-free zone

An amazing revolution is ongoing around us, especially in war. The US military went into Iraq in 2003 with a handful of unmanned planes. There are now more than 7000 robotic drones in its inventory. In 2003, the invasion force had no ground robotics. Today there are roughly 12,000 on the ground. And the latest models of our robots give new meaning to the technology industry term “killer application”, as they now come with a lethal armoury of missiles, rockets, and machine-guns.

I reckon he’s pretty much got it right; and I don’t think the implications have sunk in yet. For one thing, Western militaries have been building ever-fewer, but much more capable platforms (tanks, ships, planes) over the decades, because of the enormous value placed on keeping their crews alive. When there is no crew at stake, it may make more sense to build them en masse, lower-capability, and cheap – perhaps a new generation of military commanders will play a real-life grunt rush.

Perhaps more importantly for those less interested in military technology and more about the horrible costs of war, Singer makes another highly pertinent point. The intolerance of (particularly) Western electorates for their soldiers coming home in body bags has been a major restraint on their leaders. If even more of the fighting is done by expendable machines, that restraint will undoubtedly lessen.

Elsewhere, Nick Gruen was also surprised by the ommission.